Wanted: GUNSMOKE (CBS/1955-1975) (1 Viewer)

[JohnHopper]

FESTUS’ MONOCHROME ERA GUNSMOKE SONGS

THE 12 SONGS
The first episode that really initiated the peculiar singing style of Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen and containing the greatest amount of fine performances remained: the season 9 “Comanches Is Soft”. The two folk songs that set Festus’ trade mark are: “Since the Mud Creek Incident” and “Cornbread and Buttermilk”.

season 9 (8)
• “Once a Haggen” (#18) (“The Road to the Graveyard”, “Chickens on the Pen”)
• “Comanches Is Soft” (#23) (“Since the Mud Creek Incident”, “Don’t Let Any Comaches Outdrink You”, “Don’t Take Any Pretty Girl’s Word”, “The Rocky Road to Wichita”)
• “The Warden” (#33) (“Cornbread and Buttermilk”)
• “The Other Half” (#35) (“Shall We Gather at the River”)

season 10 (2)
• “Double Entry” (#15) (“Cornbread and Buttermilk”)
• “Eliab’s Aim” (#23) (“I Had a Little Hen”)

season 11 (2)
• “The Storm” (#2) (“Since the Mud Creek Incident”)
• “My Father’s Guitar” (#21) (“For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”)


Gunsmoke | Comanches Is Soft | Festus sings “Since the Mud Creek Incident”

Gunsmoke | The Warden | Festus sings “Cornbread and Buttermilk”

Gunsmoke | Double Entry | Festus sings “Cornbread and Buttermilk”

Gunsmoke | The Storm | Festus sings “Since the Mud Creek Incident”

 

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Here is a nice write up of Ken's radio series, CHUCK WAGON JAMBOREE and Ken's career.

Chuck-Wagon Jamboree, Volume 2

Chuck-Wagon Jamboree, Volume 2

www.radioarchives.com

 

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Nice photo from Radio TV Mirror magazine 1955.

 

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[The 1960's]

James Arness at Headliners Club and KTBC Interview (1959)

News footage shot by Gordon Wilkison for Austin's KTBC's January 1959 meeting of the Headliners Club. The club honors two such individuals in this footage: Pauline Phillips, the columnist behind the Dear Abby newspaper column, and James Arness, the star of the television series Gunsmoke. Governor of Texas Price Daniel makes them honorary citizens of Texas. Next, a KTBC reporter interviews Jim Arness. Arness appears in his character's costume. The first :51 is silent. In both segments, Mr. Arness must have been thrilled being introduced as Matt Dillion, before being addressed as James Arness.

​

 

[jdee28]

I recently rewatched the first season of Gunsmoke and thought it was really strong! My only complaint is that the television producers should have put more faith in the radio scripts. The radio material was amazing and could have stood as is; it didn't really need that much adapting to television. I didn't like seeing "story by John Meston" and "teleplay by" someone else, as that someone else usually weakened the material. The only exception is seeing "teleplay by Sam Peckinpah;" he was the only one who actually improved on Meston's stories.

They did a few shows that were newly written for television, usually written by the team David Victor & Herbert Little Jr. These were usually the poorest episodes, as the new writers had no idea about the characters and were writing shows that were generic, that could have been produced on any western TV show; there was nothing specifically Gunsmoke about these new stories.

Gunsmoke got even better when the radio producers and writers gained full control in season 2.

 

[JohnHopper]

Gunsmoke got even better when the radio producers and writers gained full control in season 2.

I agree with you thoroughly. From season 2, the series took off thanks to producer Norman MacDonnell.

 

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[Harry-N]

Count me as another who's belatedly discovering the wonders of GUNSMOKE. Oh, I've known about it for years, being a kid in the late 50s. It was one of those prestige shows with a great reputation - one of the early "must-see" shows, and its time-slot on late Saturday nights made it seem like a show for adults. Sure enough, Dad really liked it. I still recall heading up to bed as the show was starting - getting a quick sip of Dad's beer - and seeing Matt Dillon shoot the bad guy at the start.

I wasn't into westerns at all back then. To me, they seemed to be set in a world that was unfamiliar to me. My sidewalks were all concrete while Dodge City was all planks. People rode horses; we rode in cars. Everyone carried guns; we didn't. Everyone seemed to drink a lot of beer and coffee; we were still drinking milk, juice, and soda. I just wasn't able to connect with those times at all back then. Give me a sitcom any day - or cartoons. I liked things that were funny.

So, on the few occasions that I did get to watch a GUNSMOKE, my sensibilities focused on Chester, since he was the closest to the funny one of the group. Doc's wry witticisms were probably lost on me, and Matt mostly seemed rather grim. The stories were largely lost on me back then, and more often that not, I probably fell asleep.

I never, ever recall watching GUNSMOKE at all in its syndication days after first run. I couldn't even tell you on which channel it ran in my city, but I'm sure it ran somewhere. But after moving south, while looking around the television landscape, I found an odd local channel that was running "MARSHAL DILLON" half-hours on weekday afternoons. For some reason, I recorded an episode or two. Don't know why, but as I watched them, I made a mental note: GUNSMOKE wasn't so bad, even if the syndicated episodes were chopped a bit and looked like old 16mm prints.

During the years between then and now, I very slowly warmed to a couple of westerns. First came THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT - something I discovered on an odd broadcast and then bought the two-season DVD set. Those are so chopped up and ugly, video-wise, it's hard to appreciate the show as it should be, but I could tell there was something decent there, at least some of the time.

Next up, I learned of another CBS western that was coming to DVD, this one with a TWILIGHT ZONE link. It was Rod Serling's THE LONER with Lloyd Bridges, and I actually went out of my way to go find one at a Walmart during release week. I enjoyed watching those episodes and hearing the great Goldsmith theme to the show - and I vaguely recalled it running on CBS just before GUNSMOKE on Saturday nights.

Having gone through the hell of THE FUGITIVE on DVD, with the half-seasons and music nonsense, I was never, ever going to consider buying GUNSMOKE on DVD. With twenty seasons on air, that would be forty half-season sets. No thanks. I'd done without GUNSMOKE all these years and I wasn't going to worry about missing something. And if I really wanted to see it, it was running weekdays on MeTV.

When I first subscribed to CBS All-Access, as it was called then, to get the new STAR TREK shows, I noted that they listed GUNSMOKE, but never really found the time to investigate much. I think I noted that they were the half-hours, but don't quote me. Recently, Paramount+, as it's now called, has added all of the hour shows from Season 7 up through Season 20, and the half-hours are gone, if they were there at all (?).

I also found that if one were looking to find these shows for free with ads, there's a whole GUNSMOKE channel on Pluto-TV for streaming any time one wanted.

And so, I've dipped my feet into the GUNSMOKE waters. I've been sampling a number of the S7 episodes and then skipping around. Often-times I might spot one running on Pluto, finding it interesting, and looking up the title on Paramount+ to watch it without commercials on my subscription. This I've been sampling a number of the different eras of the series.

I believe that in the "Chester vs. Festus Competition", I find myself still on the Chester side, possibly due to my admiration of Dennis Weaver's acting in things like DUEL and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. And Festus sometimes seems just a bit cartoonish to me.

I find myself enjoying the hour-long episodes that I'm seeing. It is somewhat apparent that the early S7 episodes are somewhat padded.

Episodes I've watched and enjoyed so far:

"Perce"
"Coventry" - loved the use of Twilight Zone music - very appropriate.
"Old Yellow Boots"
"Chesterland"
"Milly"
"The Gallows"
"The Search"
"The Hunger"
"Us Haggens"
"Uncle Sunday"
"Blind Man's Bluff"
"Anybody Can Kill A Marshal"
"The Quest For Asa Janin"
"The Bassops"
"Seven Hours Til Dawn"
"Snap Decision"
"Death Train"
"Snow Train" (Parts 1 and 2)
"The Lost"
"Matt's Love Story"

I'm not sure how long I'll be checking in to Dodge City, but I aim to continue for awhile. I doubt I'll ever see them all.

 

[The 1960's]

Gunsmoke's Doc and Festus at Houston Airport (1966) ​

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This film is from KHOU-TV Channel 11 in Houston. February 23, 1966. Ken Curtis and Milburn Stone are in Texas for an appearance at the Houston Stock Show at the Astrodome.

 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, William Conard. Born Sept 27th, 1920.

One my favorite radio episodes, "Home Surgery"

 

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[bmasters9]

Having gone through the hell of THE FUGITIVE on DVD, with the half-seasons and music nonsense, I was never, ever going to consider buying GUNSMOKE on DVD. With twenty seasons on air, that would be forty half-season sets. No thanks. I'd done without GUNSMOKE all these years and I wasn't going to worry about missing something. And if I really wanted to see it, it was running weekdays on MeTV.

You were almost correct about the number of total sets there would be as singles-- there was the first half-hour season (1955-56) that was presented as one release, then the next 14 (1956-70) were done in the volumes (28 sets), and the last five (1970-75) were single releases once more, for a total of 34 sets.

Of course, the all-in-one is presented in a total of 6 big sets (1-4, 5-7 [last two half-hour ones, and first hour one]), 8-9, 10-12 (last two hour B/Ws, and first hour color one), 13-15, and 16-20 (the remainder of the show, all in the 70s).

 

[Harry-N]

As a bit of a newbie to the series, I'm not up to speed on the many things that may have been written as the show has been dissected over the years. As I'm jumping around looking at nearly random episodes, I've found something that just doesn't look right to me.

In the early black & white episodes, we see Matt face off against the outlaw on the streets of Dodge and there's nothing behind him. When the color episodes start, we're following Matt down the street, but as he shoots, the angle changes and we see him in front of a building.

From my point of view, that seems wrong.

 

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[ScottRE]

This warmed my heart...

 

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